Is the end of Olympic TKD near?

I have noticed a lot of TKD threads lately that usually have several people saying how great TKD is and then another group bashing them and basically calling them idiots (in very creative ways I might add).

So here is a couple of things that I thought I would bring up for discussion.

1. It seems IMO that the interest in Olympic TKD is beginning to wane, and it is possible that in the near future it will no longer be an Olympic event. If it is removed from the Olympics do you think TKD instructors will begin to rediscover their roots and TKD will once again become more of a hardcore style (perhaps like Kyokushin)? Or will the same WTF Olympic crap continue to be shoveled to the masses?

2. If TKD had not become an Olympic event what do you believe state of TKD would be today?

I've heard that TKD is a big deal in Korea, though I have never seen this with my own eyes. Why would the olympic comittee remove TKD and not, say, curling? TKD is STRICTLY a sport, and will remain so forever.

1. Olympic TKD just barely made it on the card for the up coming olympics... and is "on probation" based on my understanding (it beat out baseball, which is a good thing cuase baseball fuckin' sucks!).

All the new rule implimentations are there to make it "more exicting to the viewer" to watch, rather then having players bounce around and throw a turning kick once per round. Personally, I enjoy olympic style TKD, watching and competing, and I'm hoping it keeps it's place in the olympics... martial usefulness aside. The new rules are nice and will make matches more exciting to watch imo. If it went away, I'm not sure how the WTF organisation would react.

2. No idea. That's better left to people who trained TKD before it's olympic birth, and saw how it changed because of it.

One thing about this style of TKD is that fact that it is a middle ground to full contact sparring. It's a gateway into MA. It's for recreational martial artists who are not going to fight full contact, and for people learning about MA who may eventiually. Nut riding aside and understanding its martial limitations, I think this style of TKD is importiant, as long as people understand what it's about.

I have noticed a lot of TKD threads lately that usually have several people saying how great TKD is and then another group bashing them and basically calling them idiots (in very creative ways I might add).

So here is a couple of things that I thought I would bring up for discussion.

1. It seems IMO that the interest in Olympic TKD is beginning to wane, and it is possible that in the near future it will no longer be an Olympic event. If it is removed from the Olympics do you think TKD instructors will begin to rediscover their roots and TKD will once again become more of a hardcore style (perhaps like Kyokushin)? Or will the same WTF Olympic crap continue to be shoveled to the masses?

It depends why interest in Olympic TKD is waning, the instructors will probably adapt to that reason. If its because the general public and martial arts world is moving towards more extreme avenues of combat sports like MMA and NHB, they will need massive revision to play catchup. If it is because people are just not interested anymore, they will probably sink deeper into McDojoland and use cheaper gayer more retarded tactics to get students.

2. If TKD had not become an Olympic event what do you believe state of TKD would be today?

I think the Kukkiwon and South Korean government had always envisioned something like this for TKD, that being said, the question to me should be "what if TKD didn't fall into the hands of corrupt embezzling nationalistic fools", in which case I'd say it would probably be moving parallel to today's major karate systems.

I started training in WTF TKD in about 1978 and at that stage it was a reasonably good "TMA" style, basically Shotokan with more kicks and some creative drills. Sparring was full-contact kicks to the head and body, full-contact punches to the body only, sometimes wearing hogu (chest protectors) and sometimes ... not. The Olympic sparring style started to be introduced in the mid-80s as I recall, and that's basically why I left TKD.

If the Olympic style hadn't been introduced, modern TKD sparring would probably resemble Kyokushinkai or possibly Tae Kyon. Korean nationalism being what it is, I suspect that the hyung (patterns) would have been revised to get away from the Japanese/Okinawan influence. Unfortunately, the Olympic aspect is only one contribution to the crappification of TKD; the other was that the Korean government sponsored instructors to colonize the world and set up schools which have now mostly evolved into McDojangs.

If the Olympic style hadn't been introduced, modern TKD sparring would probably resemble Kyokushinkai or possibly Tae Kyon. Korean nationalism being what it is, I suspect that the hyung (patterns) would have been revised to get away from the Japanese/Okinawan influence.

That was their rationale for the TaeGeuks. They still look like karate forms, except lazier and lacking any real effort.

Maybe Kyokushin. If there were more Mas Oyamas who got tired of what they were doing. TaeKyon, I doubt it. Because TKD has little to do with it in the first place, the karate links are stronger - I'd say it would have drifted more to that direction than any of the true Korean MA.